Puzzle.



J. M. MOGAULEY.

PUZZLE. 7 APPLICATION IILED'DEO. 8, 1908.

934,203, Patented Sept.14,1909,

2 BHEETSSHBET 1.

um/Mica J. M. McGAULEY.

PUZZLE.

APPLICATION IILED DEC. 8, 1908 934,203. Patented Sept. 14, 1909.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

vwemlioz JOHN M. McCAULEY, OF BEAR RIVER, MINNESOTA.

PUZZLE.

Application filed December 8, 1908.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 14:, 1939.

Serial No. 486,497.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, JOHN M. MCCAULEY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Bear River, in the county of St. Louis, State of Minnesota, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Puzzles; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and e not description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to puzzle devices, and has for one of its objects to provide a simply constructed device whereby a plurality of disks are adapted to be arranged in a certain predetermined order to produce a certain result when arranged in such order.

lVith this and other objects in view the invention consists in certain novel arrangement of parts as hereafter shown and described and then specifically pointed out in the claims, and in the drawings illustrative of the preferred embodiment of the invention, Figure 1 is a front elevation of the improved device. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the improved device. Fig. 3 is a section on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2. Fig. at is a plan view of the improved device.

The improved device comprises two plates 1011 spaced apart and maintained in spaced relations by spacer members 12 and formed with an internal preferably zig-zag guideway 13, the guideway outlined by in clined ribs 14:, as shown in Fig. 3. The guideway is provided with an inlet 15 at the upper end and a discharge 16 at the lower end. Arranged in the discharge 16 is a relatively light yieldable member or spring 17, the object of which is to be hereafter explained.

Formed upon one of the plates 10 or 11, but for the purpose of illustration upon the plate 10, are a plurality of supports, the latter produced by a plurality of inclined ribs 18 and vertical ribs 19. Any required number of the supports may be employed, but for the purpose of illustration thirteen of the supports are shown arranged in three columns, one column at each side of the plate and one column centrally of the plate, but it will be understood that the arrangement of the supports and the ribs by which they are defined may be varied to any required extent without departing from the principle of the invention, and it is not desired therefore to limit the invention in any manner to designated by the word Keeper.

A. plurality of disks 20 are employed, one for each of the supports and the disks are provided with characters corresponding to those of the supports.

With a device thus constructed a very interesting puzzle may be operated by depositing the disks consecutively in a certain predetermined order in the inlet end 15 of the guideway and permitting the first one inserted to run into the discharge 1G and be yieldably maintained in position by the spring 17. The plates 10-11 at the discharge 16 are cut away as shown at 21, to enable the disk which for the time being is in the discharge to be removed by the fingers of the operator and be replaced by gravity by the next disk.

By this means it will be obvious that one of the disks will always be partly exposed in the discharge 16 as long as there are any disks in the guideway 13, as hereafter explained.

With a device thus constructed it is possible to so arrange the disks in the guideway as to enable the operator to replace them consecutively in their respective supports, and the puzzle is to ascertain the arrangement necessary to enable this to be done and in the device employed for illustration this arrangement of the disks will be as follows: The disks are inserted into the guideway 13 in the following order; bison-tigerskunk ape keeper cat lion fox camel zebraelk--wolfbear. With the disks thus arranged, the operator removes the first disk and pronounces the letter A (being the first letter of the word ape, and the occupant of the first support), and again deposits this disk in the guideway through the inlet 15. The operator then removes the next disk from the discharge 16 and pronounces the second letter P of the word ape and again deposits this second disk through the inlet 15 into the guideway 13. The operator then removes the next disk and pronounces the letter E and again deposits this third disk into the guideway through the inlet 15. The operator then removes the fourth disk which is the disk containing the word ape and pronounces the word ape and deposits this disk in the support having the Word ape within. The operator then removes the fifth disk and pronounces the letter F (which is the first letter of the word fox contained in the next support) and again deposits this fifth disk into the guideway through the inlet 15. The operator then removes the next disk and pronounces the letter 0 and again deposits the disk in the guideway, and then removes the next disk and pronounces the letter X and again deposits the disk in the guideway, and then removes the next disk which contains the word fox and pronounces the word fox, and deposits the disk in the support containing the word fox, and so on through the series of disks which spell out the names of the animals as above described, and when all of the disks are thus removed and deposited in their respective supports they will be found in the order described and as shown in Fig. 1.

It will be obvious that the relative order of the disks may be varied to increase the interest in the puzzle, by changing the location of the names on the supports.

The improved device is simple in construction, can be inexpensively manufactured, and of any suitable material. plates 101l may be constructed of aluminum, while the dividing members and the defining elements for the supports may be' of wood or metal as preferred.

The plates 10 and the other parts may be The ornamented to any required extent and in any required manner.

hat is claimed, is:

1. A puzzle device consisting of a plurality of disks each having distinctive designating characters, some having different numbers of characters from others, a casing having an inlet and outlet and a disk guide connecting them, and also an external series of disk supports bearing designations corresponding to those of the disks.

2. A game apparatus comprising two plates spaced apart and with a guideway between them, said guideway having an inlet at one end and a discharge at the other end, a yieldable retarding element at the discharge end of said guideway, a plurality of supports upon one of said plates and formed of spaced guide members inclined to the longitudinal line of the plates, said supports each having designating characters distinguishing it from the others, the number of characters on some differing from the num bers of characters on others, a plurality of disks one for each of said supports and carried respectively by said inclined guide members and provided with designating characters corresponding to the characters in said supports, said disks likewise adapted to be inserted consecutively into the inlet end and removed from the discharge end of said guideway.

In testimony whereof, I affix my signature, in presence of two Witnesses.

JOHN M. MOCAULEY.

\Vitnesses NILS Fosso, JnNNm Pnasn. 

